Indian Railways: travel planning and ticketing, tips, useful information. "Hang yourself" - the main principle of Indian railways The length of railways in India
It's no secret that I love train rides. In India, they are the main method of intercity communication. I would offer them the slogan: "Slowly but surely!" The network densely covers the entire country, and there are several directions to choose from from large cities.
Let me tell you today about Indian railways Oh.
The romance of rail travel won my heart as a child. The sound of wheels was associated with sandwiches, a cold cutlet in foil, boiled eggs and radishes. Now I try to travel by train everywhere.
That is why, despite the presence of an air ticket, I decided to go from the night train. Yasha, our expert on India (loves her like I love Japan), explained to me the intricacies of booking tickets:
"They all sell out about a month in advance. But there is a special quota for white people of foreign tourists, it opens a day before the day of departure. You can order via the Internet. But then you need to register on the website of the railway company. And for this you need a registration, or at least a local phone number. In principle, you can buy a SIM card, but you also need a residence permit for this. Or a hotel. Or you can go to the station - it's about half an hour from here. Or go to a travel agent and let him fool around with it, it will cost you about a hundred rupees."
If you, like me, are confused by Yasha's explanations, let me summarize you:
"You have to go and book tickets at an agency, it's practically free."
So I did. Yasha explained to me the difference between the classes of carriages for a long time, but without a visual aid, I again did not understand anything, so I told the agent to take the highest class that would be. Seven easy visits to his office (“Come back in an hour, everything will be ready!”), and I had the ticket in my hands.
Tickets in India are paper. I don't know what will happen if I lose them. Might have to go through . Well, luckily I didn't lose it this time. Arrived at the station with a margin of time. The station is impressive, in front of it is a large square.
In general, again, according to Yasha, Indian trains tend to be late. They may leave on time, they may be an hour late. Maybe 12 hours. It's like a roulette wheel. In India, the people are enlightened, they perceive such changes in the schedule philosophically. People are sitting on the floor in the lobby of the station, talking.
There is a huge board on the wall. Someone is out of luck - the Hogwarts Express train was canceled.
Those who do not have enough space in the lobby can wait right on the platform.
And this is the waiting room for VIP passengers. A strict Sikh was sitting at the entrance and demanded to show him my ticket. Apparently my class of service satisfied him, and he launched me to chat with the local elite. I'm really after the third cockroach, who tried to get to know me, fled back to the people.
Anyway, it's time for me to go to my train - until I find the platform, I need it, for now ... The transitions between the platforms are all overhead.
Warning in the transition: Beware, there is some kind of comic a large number of volt!
You can also see from above that some tracks are used for freight trains. It is not clear why they pass through the station.
Tankers are also driven away here.
By the way, elevated crossings in India are only for women and cowards. Real men don't use them. I felt a little ashamed.
Okay, we need to look for my train and car. Ride me all night. In India, wherever you go by train, it is always better to take the night one. They do not walk fast, you can sleep. It's good that I have one night. When I picked up the ticket, there was a guy there, he was going across the whole country - he had to travel for hours. I have, I know, a sleeping car ... Maybe this one? Written by sleeper.
I looked - in my opinion he is not. I was embarrassed that you can put your hand through the window from the street. Then I remembered, Yashin's story, that Sleeper is where there are no glasses in the windows. At night, you need to put on a sleeping bag. Good thing it's not mine.
Nearby is a "second class" carriage. It is not only windowless, but also sedentary.
It must be wonderful to ride in such a car all night. Will have to dobriifin ask. He seemed to be riding
If you look closely, it looks like a prison. Look at these poor people!
Some windows not only have glass, they don't even have bars. Emergency exit- if nothing needs to be opened or knocked out, then it's easier.
And there are entire wagons specially for luggage. It’s hard for you and me, who travel with suitcases, to understand, because you can just push it under the bed ...
But India is on a different scale. Here's how much someone carries with them. There isn't enough room for a bed. So there is a separate car.
Here on the platform, they are also waiting for something. In general, the Indians are waiting anywhere. So probably in China it would be if they let people on the platforms. But the Chinese love order, and very much (almost no one, and almost never). And in India - please.
Here even animals walk on the platforms. And what about monkeys? Waiting for the train, talking to the locals.
Not everyone is ready to wait on the platform. Some jump right on the train.
So it seems it is already more like my car. "AC" means air-conditioned. Why air conditioning in winter? Yes, because in such cars the windows are glazed. This is the suite for which they let the VIP into the waiting room. The style is reminiscent of Soviet compartments. But this one is three-tiered, and I took a two-tiered one.
Here he is. Finally. The most expensive carriage on the entire train. Overnight fare came out to about $23. (This is already with what they threw in the travel agency.)
A listing of passengers with their seats is hung near the doors of the car. Maybe the loss of a ticket would not be as catastrophic as it seemed to me.
I went into the wagon. In appearance, a reserved seat-reserved seat. The shelves are normal, spacious, there is a fan on the ceiling. You can live.
There is some confusion in my department. Three Asian guys are trying to kick out two Indian women from their seats. The boys have neat tickets for these seats, and they also photographed the list on the outside of the car, where their names are written. And the aunts have handwritten seats on their tickets. But they are already sitting in them, and are not going to move yet, despite all the eloquent persuasions and arguments. This is partly because they don't understand English very well.
"What kind of dinner are we going to have," a man in uniform suddenly asks, "Vegetarian or not?"
"Conductor!" says the most sociable of the guys, holding out the tickets "help us sort out the seats!"
"Now, now. What kind of dinner do you want?" everyone around said that they would be vegetarian, after which he turned around and left without looking at the seats.
Came back five minutes later with packed lunches.
"Four hundred rupees from you," he said. Then I noticed the inscription "Express Food" on his uniform shirt, and I realized that he was no conductor.
"Isn't food included in the ticket price?" surprised Chinese "I thought it was on!"
"No, no. What are you. No way," the lunch box salesman assured him. Then we noticed that none of the Indians took lunch. And in general the man addressed only to tourists. Divorced again, I thought.
By that time, the guys managed to find a real guide, and he transplanted the aunt to other places. Later they explained to me that even if there are no tickets at all, then we must boldly jump on the train. You can always negotiate with the conductor. In extreme cases, you will pass in the vestibule until the bed is free at the next stop.
And I got to know my now definitely neighbors. Two of them were from Taiwan - one was called Matt (he was sociable), the other was Ian. The third was a Japanese ("Kon-bon-wa!" I interrupted immediately) his name was Kengo.
When Matt found out that I was from Moscow, he exclaimed "Welcome! Mania call Dyyyma!" It turned out that for some reason he taught Russian at the university. And the Chinese of all the names are so unpronounceable that instead of translating them for foreigners, they choose new ones for themselves. Therefore, the dude in English introduced himself as Matt, and in Russian he is Dima.
As expected, our vegetarian dinner was inedible.
We looked with envy at the Hindu couple in the side seats, who thought of bringing chips with them, and now we were feasting.
Five minutes later we set off. The conductor walked along the carriage and asked all foreigners to sign that they had been warned about the danger of poisoning on the train.
"It's good that we were warned in advance right after dinner," Dima joked, signing for everyone.
As it turned out, no one will give us rest. Vendors of extra meals, crisps, bottled water and tea kept passing by.
"Well, is tea free?" asked Kengo.
"Of course!" exclaimed chai-walla.
"Then we're three." - "Four!" I corrected it.
The guy poured us four glasses, handed them out, and said:
"Eighty rupees." It was stupid to argue, especially since 20 rupees per person, although it is a robbery for a small glass of tea, is still less than 30 cents.
After chatting for a couple of hours, we went to bed. In the carriage, each compartment is curtained, I don’t remember this in Russian reserved seats.
The next morning we arrived at the Taj Mahal. I went to put my backpack in the storage room, where they refused to accept it without a lock.
"Go to the store, buy a lock," the locksmith pointed me to the kiosk. A completely useless castle costs 25 rupees. I'm sure ten of them go straight into the caretaker's pocket.
I look, some train has come to the freight track. No one is embarrassed by the lack of a platform, everyone goes straight to the rails.
In the evening of that day, having taken the bag, I had to go further.
"Your train back to Delhi will be super-luxe," they promised me when they saw the tickets. "Speedy. Almost like "
I wonder if these people have ever seen a shinkansen. Well, in general, the train was clean and really fast. And as expected in a shinkansen, I overslept all the way.
Let me show you a few steam locomotives for dessert:
They are all very "industrial". Clearly, serious things.
All locomotives are different! Probably someone understands them, will tell where they come from, are they called nan? ..
Ah, I almost forgot. There are also carriages for chairs. There is no limit to the variety of Indian wagons!
These are the trains in India. Senseless and merciless - this is about them.
Thanks to the increased last years flow of available information about India, you can learn more about its history, cities and resort areas. Get information on how to get to this country and where to relax. And how to travel on it?
Traditionally, the most comfortable view transport for travel big country considered a railroad. It is much cheaper than faster aviation, but much more comfortable than traveling by bus. In India, the system in this sense is similar to the Russian one, only certain features of the country's railways must be taken into account.
general information
Indian Railways is an absolute state monopoly. The total length of railway lines is approaching 70,000 km, second only to three countries - the USA, Russia and China. 30 million people travel by rail every day. The number of employees employed in the railway industry is 2 million people. The largest railway stations in the country serve millions of passengers every day. For example, the Mumbai railway station provides services to 3 million people every day.
Train schedule
It is quite convenient to plan your trip around India by rail using the official website of Indian Railways: indianrail.gov.in. In addition to the general train schedule, there is interactive map local railroads. The search program allows you not only to plan quite convenient transfers, but even takes into account possible transfers.
True, it must be taken into account that the indicated schedule is used indistinctly. Because of this, trains not only arrive late at the station, but even depart on schedule. It follows from this that this service can only be used as a preparation for the upcoming trip.
The most accurate information is available to agencies that sell tickets, their booking sites, station ticket offices and free information desks located under the signs “MAY I HELP YOU”.
How to buy a train ticket in India
You can buy tickets in different ways. They are offered by special offices, station ticket offices. They also booked on websites and ordered in hotels. When purchasing them, a mandatory registration procedure is carried out, where the personal data of each passenger, the number and name of the required train, and the class of the desired car are indicated in a special form. In agencies, employees will fill out this form themselves, in all other cases, the future passenger does it personally. When purchasing an electronic version, the required data is sent to the website of the corresponding service.
It is possible to buy a ticket through an intermediary, but then you need to agree with him on the amount of the commission, which will then be reflected in the ticket. But you need to be careful with them. Taking advantage of the poor awareness of foreigners, Indians can sell a ticket many times more than the face value.
Ticket booking option through the website indianrail.gov.in is irrelevant for foreign tourists, because You can do this if you have an Indian bank card. But there is an alternative - these are intermediaries. For example, sites makemytrip.com or cleartrip.com. They are the most convenient, reliable and inexpensive among the mass of similar assistants.
It is desirable to book a ticket according to the General quota. On the official website of the railways, it is possible to check the availability of reservations by electronic copy with the PNR number listed there.
Top: most cheap ticket common carriage (General Class), below - the most expensive ticket of the first class with air conditioning (First class Air-Conditioned)
In the most unfortunate scenario with the purchase of tickets, you can use "wait list" service, according to which travel tickets are sold without seat and carriage numbers. However, thanks to them, the passenger can board the train he needs in the appropriate class. Already in the carriage, the passenger can contact the conductor and with his help get a suitable seat.
By the way, it is advisable to exchange a ticket purchased through the worldwide network as soon as possible at the station ticket office for a regular paper one, otherwise you risk being left without a seat at all, even paying for it. These are the realities of Indian Railways.
The help of “voluntary helpers” should be categorically rejected from among the personalities wandering near the station. All conversations can only be conducted with official employees of the station in uniform and with a badge or with the police. All the rest are most likely crooks who want to earn extra money.
You should also be aware that there are special offices serving foreign citizens at the stations of large cities - foreign traveller's office. It is clean, calm and you can always buy tickets in the right direction.
The task of these International Tourist Bureaus is to provide foreigners with tickets, however, if you are friendly, open and smiling, you can get additional privileges: leave things for a while, relax on the couch, get advice, find out the cost of a taxi.
Such bureaus work only at railway stations 15 largest cities countries. Find out about their whereabouts only from official employees of the station or from the police.
wagons
With all the diversity of the car fleet of Indian railways, two types are more or less suitable for the usual standards: SLIPPER CLASS and AC 3.
An Indian family settled in the vestibule of the car
Wagons below level type Second Class General Compartment correspond to common wagons. Tickets for them are extremely cheap, however, there are practically no amenities in them. The Internet is full of videos with cars of this class. It is enough to see this once to refuse to save money. The only plus is that with a ticket General class it is possible to get into any carriage and, after talking with the conductor and paying extra accordingly, go to a more comfortable carriage. approximate price trips: 1 dollar - 500 km.
Second Class Sleeper suggests carriages approaching in terms of comfort the usual reserved seat, however, with some reservations. In one compartment there are 8 beds (2 places on three shelves). You can’t sleep on the lower shelves, as you have to share them with other passengers. It is advisable not to take tickets at the beginning and end of the car because of the proximity of the toilets, of which there are 4. There are no conductors here, no one gives out bed linen. Approximate cost of the trip: 5 dollars - 1000 km.
AC 2 Tier as close as possible in terms of comfort to the reserved seat, but much more expensive than the previous classes. A four-seater compartment is fenced off from the passage with a conventional curtain. Approximate cost of the trip: $20 - 1000 km.
First class Air Conditioned is a 1st class carriage, which is close to a compartment carriage in terms of comfort. Due to the high cost of tickets, they are included only in long-distance trains. Approximate cost of the trip: $30 - 1000 km.
The main supervisor on the train is the conductor or TTI. He checks tickets, considers complaints and requests from passengers, speaks decently English language. For a small reward, "destroy" difficult situation in the right direction. He is at your request officially will change the General Class ticket for a certain surcharge to a seat in a more comfortable carriage.
There are more than 20. From Russia, most often fly to Delhi and Dabolim.
Read about the tourist's first trip, how he got to Goa. The review is located.
It may sound strange, but traveling by rail in India is easy and convenient, despite the difficult Indian realities. Try not to immediately reject habitual local residents standards, try to understand them, and your journey through India will be filled with joy and knowledge of the unusual. In addition, you need to be sociable, friendly, smile more often, and then you can avoid problems and unpleasant surprises along the way, find the most convenient travel option and save money.
Short Video, Sleeper Class car
India is one of largest countries in the world in terms of area, and in terms of population, it generally ranks second. For now.
The country stretches from west coast to the eastern states, where a foreigner requires special permission to visit. From Kanyakumari, the southernmost point on the map, to the northernmost point near the Siachen Glacier in the disputed territories of Jammu and Kashmir.
The most popular transport in India is trains. Firstly, it is one of the largest railway networks in the world, and secondly, railway transport is affordable for the widest segments of the population.
The road network links all major cities and is also represented in every state.
Some statistics:
- 64,460 kilometers of railway tracks
- more than 7 thousand railway stations
- 7,651,000,000 passengers per year
Indian Railways is a state-owned enterprise that owns the railroad system. Interestingly, almost two million people are employed in the service.
Tickets
India has some of the lowest tariffs in the world. Online ticketing was widely introduced already in 1995 - tickets can be ordered via the Internet and mobile devices. Tickets are sold at a discount for pensioners (who are over 60), students, and people with serious illnesses.
For foreign tourists, there is also a nice bonus - this is the so-called Indrail Pass– Railway subscription, which allows an unlimited number of trips for a certain period (there are from 1 to 90 days).
Reservations open 60 days prior to travel date.
Wagon classes
Classes of wagons in India are like our reserved seat, coupe, sv. Just more hardcore.
Shared wagon
An analogue of our common carriage - the number of people depends only on how many people can physically fit. People will stand, lie down, sit in the aisles and on each other's heads.
The price is about 3-5 dollars per 1000 kilometers.
sleeping car
This is our reserved seat, only instead of two floors of shelves - three. Whoever occupies the upper ones lies, the rest sit on the lower shelves. There are actually fewer people than in the general class.
The price is about 8-10 dollars per 1000 kilometers.
First class / First class Non-AC
This is our stripped-down compartment - instead of four, there are two shelves, one above the other.
Third class
The same sleeping car - the same three-story shelves, but there will no longer be people in the aisles and 10 people sitting on the lower one - everyone has their own place. According to the plan, there should be 72 people in the car.
The price is 16-20 dollars per 1000 kilometers.
Second class
An analogue of the third class, only two tiers of shelves, instead of three.
The price is 25-28 dollars per 1000 kilometers.
First grade
It's already Lux. Two seats - opposite each other, an isolated room, soft backs - everything to feel like a white person.
The price is 50-60 dollars per 1000 kilometers.
Trains in India are very late. If you take a ticket for a train at which your station is not the initial one, but the transit one, then do not be surprised that when you get out on the platform, there will be no train. You will have to wait a few more hours. So if you are traveling from Goa, for example, to Delhi by plane, then it is better to leave so that you have at least 15-20 hours left from the declared time of arrival. The train is guaranteed to be late.
Train at Dudhsagar Falls in GOA:
Trains in India. Inside view:
Railways in India have a length of over 63 thousand km. According to this indicator, the country is in fourth place in the world. Almost all rail transportation is controlled by the state-owned Indian Railways. This enterprise is managed by the Ministry of Railways of India. Many railway routes in the country are overloaded.
State of the railways
Trains are the most accessible and popular mode of transportation for the population. The official website of the Indian Railways indianrail.gov.in presents the train schedule. Each train has carriages of different classes, differing in comfort level. Indian Railways provide the bulk of the freight and passenger traffic. High speed trains running between major cities equipped with air conditioning systems. Express trains, which are much cheaper, are considered less convenient.
Many Indian trains are characterized by unsanitary conditions. The situation in the carriages of the highest class is much better. In the mountainous regions of the country, there are lines that were built during the period of British rule. The rolling stock there is in a deplorable state. In such places, the roads often have a track of different widths, which affects the speed of trains. In the northern states of the country are frequent emergencies on the railway. The reason lies in poor management, overcrowding and low quality of service. India is the world leader in the number of transport accidents in the railway sector.
Train fares
Indian trains are inexpensive, which makes them popular with locals and tourists. The cost of tickets is largely determined by the quality of service and the distance of the route. For example, a first-class ticket for a 1,000 km trip will cost approximately $54. Traveling in a common carriage for a similar distance will cost $ 2.5. There are computerized and conventional cash desks at railway stations. In the first option, the passenger can book a ticket for a specific seat. To do this, he fills out a special document, which must then be printed out and taken with him. A couple of days before the flight, the box office starts selling Tatkal tickets, the cost of which is 20% higher than usual.
You can buy railway tickets on the Internet by paying for them with electronic money or bank card. Sites offering tickets for Indian trains: makemytrip.com, cleartrip.com, etc. The indonet.ru resource provides users with a train schedule. Fares can be found on the Indian Railways website.
India is eternal, it does not change and is unlikely to change in the foreseeable future. It will always be chaotic, dirty, mystical and incomprehensible. And its trains will always be a serious test for a person accustomed to minimal comfort. That 10 years ago I traveled around India in exactly the same trains as now. Nothing has changed, except that pastures have become even more shabby. But at the same time, the Indian neighbors remained the same sincere, sociable and cheerful. Six hours on the train from Varanasi to Gorakhpur near the Nepalese border flew by not surprisingly unnoticed. I even managed to take a nap for a couple of hours, which rarely happens to me in such inappropriate places for this in the context of cleanliness and hygiene.
To make sure you buy tickets for indian train, you need to take care of this in advance. The fact is that trains in this country are subsidized by the state and are very cheap by our standards. Only one in ten Indians can afford a plane, and therefore the whole country is massively moved by rail. A big country, one billion and two hundred million people. Therefore, trains are almost always packed to capacity, and there may not be tickets a day or two before departure. The easiest way is to spend two hours and master the idiotic registration on the website of Indian railways on the official website Indian railways, for which, in addition to angelic patience, you also need an Indian phone number and an Indian credit card. What, you already grabbed your head? Then there is an easier option. But twice the price. Go to the site 12goasia.com and buy a ticket there in three minutes, paying with any card. That's where I bought the tickets. A ticket from Varanasi to Gorakhpur cost 700 rupees ($10) on the Indian Railways website, but I paid $17 through an intermediary. Well, to hell with him, but with tickets.
So you bought your tickets. Then go to the station. Pay attention to the broken sleepers here. It's no surprise that train derailments happen regularly in India -
There are eight (!) types of carriages, but three are relevant for the traveler: sleeping with air conditioning, sitting with air conditioning and sitting without air conditioning. Sitting without air conditioning is hellish trash, the whole village goes there, there are always twice as many people as places and you will get untold pleasure with a minus sign. The coolest class is a kind of Soviet reserved seat, only with curtains, it looks like this from the side -
Surprisingly, cleaning is done before boarding. Tyap-blunder of course, but still nice -
Each carriage has four toilets. Two with toilets and two with a hole -
And two more washbasins with mirrors -
My car, the coolest in the train -
At first, I threw things upstairs, not assuming that I would sleep -
However, I soon felt like taking a nap. Curtains create some comfort, and if they weren’t so dirty, then they wouldn’t have any price at all -
And you can also open the sunbeds and they will turn into seats -
Linen is distributed in the same way as in Russia and Ukraine. Except in paper bags. Included in price, no extra charge
Some "nodes" of the car -
Gorgeous door handles -
Having examined my car, I go to look at the next one. The transitions between cars are safer than in our trains. But also dirtier. Garbage everywhere -
What would you think? This is the conductor's bed. It closes in a closet in the vestibule -
The neighboring car, in principle, is exactly the same. But without curtains and with fans instead of air conditioning -
Sleeping conductor -
A few shots through the door. By the way, no one closes the doors in the vestibule, you can jump out -
Everywhere people walk along the rails -
Arrived, this is Gorakhpur. We can say that with one foot in Nepal -
About five hundred meters from the railway station there is a bus station. Today there is a specific flood and all the schedules have gone astray. My bus, which was supposed to leave at 12:30 in the afternoon, ended up leaving at almost two -
Pour on the track. By the way, there are no women's restrooms. That is, not at all
Travel to Sonauli on the Nepalese border costs a ridiculous $ 1.5 per 100 km of travel -
And yet India is still very far from the achievements of civilization familiar to us. The popular Indian site Redbus sells tickets online for buses across the country. Of the four people I know, use the purchased online ticket succeeded two. Today I joined the ranks of those who were forced to buy a ticket again from the conductor. Why? This, they say, in Delhi and Mumbai is "your online", and here in Gorakhpur you pay in cash! India, you are beautiful -
One hundred kilometers traveled almost 4 hours, which is quite normal for India. And here is the border with Nepal -
Initially, I "failed", that is, I went to the border, logically estimating that passport control was there. But it turned out that the exit passport control of India was not here, but a kilometer behind, in a small stall between vegetable shops. I stomp back from the border deep into India, as they say -
This is where the stamps are placed. And only then go to Nepal, which is a kilometer from here -
I lost an hour running back and forth, finally I'm in Nepal -
You asked how the issue of my lack of free space for stamps in my passport was resolved? Yes, not a very pleasant decision. At first, the Nepalese refused to let me into the country and sent me to hell, saying, go back to India and change your passport. This is of course not an option. I say, let's settle the issue amicably? I will not retell the whole epic, as a result, the visa was pasted. Not just like that. But also without excesses, so to speak. Right on the last page, where the rules for using a passport -
Hello everyone from Nepal!
